The invention relates to an agitator which is particularly intended for abrasive media. Increased wear due to abrasion occurs when abrasive media are stirred, such as suspensions with high concentrations of solid matter which may occur, for example, when processing ore in, for example, oxidation autoclaves for refining gold and copper, so that the agitator has only relatively short operating times before it must be replaced.
Attempts have been made to apply coatings of abrasion-resistant materials, for example hard metals, metal carbides or the like, on the agitators for reducing abrasion. Such coatings are not only extremely expensive, but application of the coatings can also partially weaken the support material, which may cause additional problems. Extremely corrosive conditions are present particularly when processing ore using wet-chemical processes, which necessitates the use of particularly resistant materials, such as titanium compositions, for the support material. However, such coatings which improve the wear resistance frequently do not exhibit sufficient chemical resistance, so that they can be removed by corrosion.
So-called disk agitators represent one particular type of radially conveying agitator; disk agitators include a support disk to which several agitator blades are attached. The agitator blades are attached to the support disk in a substantially perpendicular and radial direction. The support disk in this type of disk agitator is oriented substantially horizontally, and the agitator blades are attached to the support disk at about half the blade height. Disk agitators having this design can have a different number of agitator blades and/or the agitator blades can have blade surfaces of different sizes.